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Yesterday I mentioned Fats Waller in my post about Art Tatum. Fats was a master of the stride piano, in addition to being a singer, a bandleader, a songwriter and a comedian . Notice, during the instrumental break in this video, the strong bass movement in Fats’ left hand. Stride piano was driven by the left hand. I was a more sophisticated style of playing, because of the varied chord changes, than the later boogie woogie piano, which stuck to a I IV V progression but had an even more driving left hand.

I have heard that Fats clowned around while recording songs that he was given by his record company, when he didn’t like them. I think it is more likely that Fats clowned around all the time. Here he is singing his own “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” This is a “Soundie,” a short film made for a kind of video jukebox that was popular in the 1940s. The woman sitting on the piano is singer Myra Johnson. She also appeared in a 1936 film short with Jimmie Lunceford and his orchestra, which was made to play between feature films in movie houses.

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